Southward Ho !

Despite all the work I’ve had to put into pre-move activities, I managed to read quite a bit this last month but I probably went outside the published reading pool more than usual. Now since I have less than two weeks before the move and since so many of my books are packed away, I will be re-listing many of the titles from July that I (this time) hope to read in and around the household confusion.

Another factor is that due to construction delays, I will be forced to put almost all of my books in a storage unit until the room and the bookshelves are built. I might not see them again until Christmas.

But I have a few books set aside for reading with my trusty magnifying glass and my digital readers are chock-a-block with electronic versions of a great deal of desirable or intriguing literature (not to mention digital piles of detective, mystery, and science fiction stories) so I won’t be hurting for reading satisfaction at all. My only fear is that I develop an uncontrollable urge to read a certain book that ends up in the storage area hidden in dozens of boxes of books. Will I survive or will I be forced to purchase an unnecessary second copy of the same book?

Next month I am intending to alter the reading pool just a tad and select 20 books and one author. The idea is that I would concentrate on reading an open selection of titles by that author. To date I have been dribbling authors like Modiano by selecting one title each month; now I might read all the Modiano I can fit into the month. But, aways being cautious and generally eclectic, I will also have a list of titles that intrigue me and expect to round out the monthly reading list.

For the record, here is the August version of the ACOR Active Reading Pool. Newer titles are in green. I can only hope that I have the time and energy to at least dent a few of these titles during the month:

An Iliad — Alessandro Baricco

Humboldt’s Gift — Saul Bellow

Zero K — Don DeLillo

Slouching Towards Bethlehem — Joan Didion

Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig

The Big Money — John Dos Passos

Dreaming In Cuban — Cristina Garcia

The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

The True Believer — Eric Hoffer

The Portrait of a Lady — Henry James

The Vegetarian — Han Kang

The Old Capital —Yasunari Kawabata

The Man Who Spoke Snakish — Andrus Kivirähk

Martin Eden — Jack London

In the Café of Lost Youth — Patrick Modiano

The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy

The Counterlife — Philip Roth

It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands

Dendara — Yuya Sato

Margret and the Death Threats — Georges Simenon

The Ogre — Michel Tournier

Hell — Yasutaka Tsutsui

Vinegar Girl — Anne Tylor

Parade — Shuichi Yoshida

Violence: Six Sideways Reflections — Slavoj Zizek

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Author! Author! — David Lodge

Uncentering the Earth — William T. Vollmann

Infinite Jest — David Foster Wallace

The Republic of Wine — Mo Yan

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3 responses

When I moved back home to Devon after 22 years working in London, my books were in storage for a month. I took 10 books and a Palm Tunsten PDA with many books on it. I survived, but I don’t want to repeat the experience. Good luck with the move, Mike. I hope all goes smoothly.

I used to read on a T3 and really valued that device but now with all the integration of Apple products and the advent of the cloud I look at my computer or my iPad or my high-definition iPhone and wax nostalgic at even trying to read on the PDA (actually, I still had it until the great moving cleanup when I decided it was just junk .. no matter how cherished it was 10 or 20 years ago).

Yes, mine went when its battery died. I have had a Apple only house for 15 years. They may be less than they were when Steve Jobs was at the help,but their kit is still streets ahead of the completion. I’d hate to be without my iPad, MacBook and iPhone now.

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In continuous operation since 1997: 24 years of reading with occasional outbursts of senility and frustration.

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